A comparison of growth, survival rate and number of marketable koi carp produced under different management regimes in earthen ponds and concrete tanks

Abstract

To compare the growth performance of koi carp, Cyprinus carpio var. koi, produced in concrete tanks (2.13 · 0.91 · 1.22 m; capacity: 2,000 l each) and earthen ponds (9.1 · 6.10 · 1.07 m; capacity: 59650 l each), fish larvae (stocking size: 0.12 ± 0.008 g) were cultured for 11 weeks and individual weight gain, survival rate and number of marketable fish produced were compared among four management regimes for each culture system: (1) live zooplankton fed to fish larvae in ponds (PLF) and tanks (TLF); (2) application of poultry manure in ponds (PPM) and tanks (TPM); (3) application of cow manure in ponds (PCD) and tanks (TCD); and (4) a control treatment for ponds (PC) and tanks (TC), where a commercial feed was applied. There were three replicates for each treatment. Weight gain of koi carp was highest in the PLF treatment, followed in decreasing order by TLF, PPM, PCD, TPM, TCD, PC and TC treatments (P < 0.05). There was a significant difference in the survival of koi carp among the treatments, ranging from 67.83% in TC to 95.50% in PLF. The number of marketable fish produced was highest in the PLF treatment, followed in decreasing order by TLF, PPM and PCD treatments. However, none of the fish produced in the TPM, TCD, PC and TC treatments attained marketable size. Significantly higher (P < 0.05) values of pH and dissolved oxygen (for water samples collected weekly at 9 A.M.) were obtained in the live food and control treatments (for both tanks and ponds), compared to the manured treatments. The concentration of total alkalinity, BOD, PO 4 -P, NO 3 -N and specific conductivity were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in PPM and PCD, compared to other treatments. NO 2 -N and NH 4 -N values were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in TPM and TCD, than other treatments. The results suggest that introduction of live zooplankton into culture 2006 units result in higher growth of koi carp larvae compared to manure based systems. Earthen ponds appeared to be better alternative to concrete tanks for manure application through maintenance of better water quality due to their higher assimilatory capacity and greater abundance of plankton which resulted in better growth of cultured fish.

Fish Production, Water Quality and Bacteriological Parameters of Koi Carp Ponds Under Live-food and Manure Based Management Regimes

“…1) could be related to the acidic nature of water bodies in North Bengal (Nath et al, 1994;. Lower range of pH values in the PM and CD ponds could be attributed to the animal manure applied in these treatments (Jha et al, 2004;Jha et al, 2006;Jha et al, 2007).…”

“…Since ornamental fish ponds in India are much smaller compared to other aquaculture ponds (measuring about 7 m×20 m, with an average depth of 0.6-1.0 m), there are more opportunities to control environmental conditions in ornamental fish ponds by employing proper management techniques. Introduction of live zooplankton has been investigated as a practicable alternate to pond fertilization for increasing ornamental fish yields while avoiding water quality deterioration (Jha & Barat, 2005a;Jha et al, 2006;Jha et al, 2007). However, there is a paucity of documentation pertaining to bacteriological parameters of ornamental fish ponds, particularly those under live-food and manure based management regimes.…”

Exogenous plankton as food for intensive rearing of ornamental cyprinid, Epalzeorhynchus frenatus

“…Studies on feeding behaviour and food selection of koi carp and goldfish indicated a strong preference for cladocerans and negative selection of copepods and phytoplankton (Jha and Barat, 2005b;Jha et al, 2006b). Significantly higher growth and survival rates were observed in koi carp fry fed with exogenous plankton, compared with pelleted diet (Jha and Barat, 2005b;Jha et al, 2006a;Jha et al, 2007). In the only report available to the author on the husbandry of rainbow shark, a combination of greenwater infusoria (including mainly ciliates) with artificial diets yielded better growth, compared to fish fed with artificial feed only (McGovern-Hopkins et al, 2002).…”

“…Among literatures available, the values range from less then 0.3 fish/l for the guppy, Poecilia reticulata cultured in outdoor tanks and fed with different types of live and formulated diets (Fernando and Phang, 1985) and 0.4 fish/l in angelfish, Pterophyllum scalare cultured in indoor tanks and fed with a commercial trout diet containing 45% protein (Degani, 1993) to 0.5 fish/l for the gourami, Trichogaster trichopterus stocked in outdoor tanks and fed with formulated diet (Cole et al, 1997). The koi carp, Cyprinus carpio are cultured at a density of 0.25 fish/l in Hawaii (reported in Asano et al, 2003) and 0.3 fish/l in India in outdoor tanks and ponds fed with either pelleted diet or live plankton (Jha and Barat, 2005a;Jha and Barat, 2005b;Jha et al, 2006a;Jha et al, 2007). The goldfish, Carassius auratus has also been cultured at a density of 0.3 fish/l in outdoor ponds and fed with live plankton (Jha et al, 2006b).…”

“…Even this has limits since, in large units, it may not be possible to manually exchange more that 10% of standing water volume from the tanks every day. Introduction of exogenous plankton has been investigated as a successful alternate to traditional management systems (application of pelleted food or direct manuring) for increasing yields of ornamental cyprinid stocked at a density of 0.3 fish/l (Jha and Barat, 2005b;Jha et al, 2006a;Jha et al, 2007). Since an optimal water quality can be maintained in production systems supplied with exogenous plankton, it could arguably permit a higher stocking density.…”